


Gaming Night

by LegendaryBiologist13



Category: A3! (Video Game)
Genre: Ficlet, Fluff, Gaming, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-21
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-03-13 06:07:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28898652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LegendaryBiologist13/pseuds/LegendaryBiologist13
Summary: When Itaru finds himself in a period of burnout from speedrunning and livestreaming, Tsumugi visits him and asks about how to deal with students who like games. Itaru then introduces Tsumugi to the world of gaming.
Relationships: Chigasaki Itaru/Tsukioka Tsumugi
Comments: 14
Kudos: 39





	Gaming Night

**Author's Note:**

> I finally come out of my writing hiatus, but might return to hiatus again as I tier for *coughs* ODP. I plan to update Winter Troupe Digital Adventure some time soon, but it seems like I need a bit of warm-up before I get into it again.
> 
> Since ODP features ItaTsumu, I'm writing a quick ItaTsumu to hype it up. Hope y'all know your link skills and teambuilding so we can have a good competition up there heh heh heh. Seriously, you can t3 (1.0-2.0%) without using a single gem on slower events if you know those stuff. First thing first, NO AUTO-TEAMS. Without link skill boost it'll be really weak.

There were many ways to enjoy a game. One of them was speedrunning, a play-through in which you tried to complete a game as fast as possible. In this play-through you might consider exploiting glitches to speed up your progress.

Itaru had done a lot of speedruns. At first he'd merely recorded and uploaded his play-though videos to the Internet, but as he gained more followers, he'd decided to do livestreams of the speedruns. One livestream could take eight hours straight and cause back pains and dark circles under the eyes, but it was worth the trouble. Seeing comments like _"Poggers, Taruchi! You kick ass!"_ and especially getting donations from a few generous watchers invigorated him more than anything.

As much as he loved the reactions and the donations from the watchers, speedrunning and livestreaming started to tire him. A period of burnout, he'd say.

Itaru moved the mouse on the desk and clicked on the folders on the screen, scrolling through the numerous emulators and ISO files within. A moment of nostalgia with old-school games would perhaps help him get over his burnout… Uh, what to play? He'd beaten all of them over and over again and featured them in his speedruns multiple times! What kind of self-imposed challenge should he set now?

_Knock, knock, knock._

Frowning, Itaru rose from his desk and stormed towards the door of his bedroom. Man, who the heck was that? Couldn't he have a moment of peace with his games?

He opened the door. Tsumugi stood before him with a small smile that quickly faded. Damn, Itaru must've scared him with his scowl.

"Sorry, were you in the middle of something?" Tsumugi asked.

Itaru's heart clenched, and he hated it. He could never get angry at someone as nice and thoughtful as Tsumugi.

Itaru forced a smile. "Oh, it's nothing. What's the matter?"

"I need your help. Could you introduce me to a few games?"

Itaru blinked. Tsumugi? Gaming? Had hell frozen over?

"My new students really like games. I thought if I knew more about gaming, I could have an easier time speaking to them."

"I see." Itaru chuckled. "In that case, I can help. Come in."

As Itaru headed back to the desk, Tsumugi stepped into the room and closed the door. Another reason why Itaru could never get angry at Tsumugi was that unlike other residents of the dorm, Tsumugi never commented on the empty pizza boxes and soda cans across his room.

Dragging another chair towards his desk, Itaru asked, "What's your students' favorite genre?"

"Genre?"

Itaru looked at Tsumugi. "Games have a lot of genres. Sports, simulation, strategy, etc. I like RPGs, for one."

"RPGs?"

Silly him. Of course Tsumugi would ask _that_. "Role-playing games," Itaru replied. "You control a character in a vast world, fight various enemies and level up, learn new abilities and get new gears, and so on. There are many subgenres of RPGs, but we'll leave it at that."

Tsumugi stroked his chin. "I thought I heard them talking about 'growing plants' and 'taking care of animals.'"

"That sounds like your type of genre."

"Huh?"

"Lol, jk. It's a simulation then." Itaru sat down on his chair. "Take a seat. Let me introduce you to a classic." Opening his PSX emulator and running _Harvest Moon - Back to Nature_ ISO, he continued, "This one was really popular around the 2000s. You get to grow plants and take care of animals." Itaru moved aside. "Here, you play it."

"Um, I don't know the controls."

"Don't worry. I'll guide you as you go."

As expected, Tsumugi fumbled with the controls over and over again. In the "Enter Your Name" part he ended up writing gibberish. When he finally got to control his character, he failed to plant the cucumber seeds on the tilled land. And he accidentally hit his dog and a few villagers with a farming tool too, which had caused him to get all panicky.

What a noob. Yet it was fun to watch all the chaos caused by Tsumugi in the game and teach him how to play better. Most of the time Itaru had only met pro gamers like Banri and never someone as lousy as Tsumugi.

It was the best challenge he'd ever found. Maybe he should invite Tsumugi over to his livestream next time, to show his followers that he was highly capable of guiding a noob.

A wave of satisfaction washed over Itaru when Tsumugi successfully planted the cucumbers and got to watch them bud. Unfortunately, tears soon welled up in Tsumugi's eyes. Well, Itaru was sure that Tsumugi was not used to staring at a computer screen for a long time.

"Want me to adjust the lighting? Or do you want a break?"

Tsumugi wiped the tears off his eyes with his sleeve. "I'll take a break." He looked at the wall clock. "It's already 11PM. Time flies when you play a game, huh?"

"Welcome to the world of gaming."

"Ahaha, I'm heading back to my room." Tsumugi stood up. "Tasuku will get mad at me if I stay up late."

"Wanna continue tomorrow?"

"But won't I just bother you? You won't get to play anything."

"Don't you want to learn more about gaming so that you can teach your students better? The world of gaming is bigger than you can ever imagine." And maybe Tsumugi might consider joining the gaming crew of Mankai someday… That'd be the greatest achievement for Itaru.

"You have a point." Tsumugi walked away from the desk. "Then see you tomorrow!"

Itaru couldn't wait for another gaming night with Tsumugi.


End file.
